CODEX Part 3: Between Heaven and Hell
Pulling On the Strings

The cage was shaking from the movement inside. Human souls were easy to break so most demons targeted them first, their number decreasing visibly.

Hans was fighting well yet he was trying to hit in a way that blood wouldn’t get on his ring; that was quite hard to do for most of the fighters because no matter how much they were covering it or how careful they were, the ring was filling up with blood.

The only fighter without a ring, therefore without a problem, was Zoe. She was also the one who would prefer to run and defend rather than fight back and kill.

Asmodeus was staring at her with a poker face until he told a demon to change the rules.

Every motion in the cage stopped and everyone got silent when the lust demon walked closer to the cell. Hans walked to Zoe and chuckled when he saw her in the same state she entered.

“Rules changed! Forget the ring! You win if you kill a certain person!” The demon announced.

Zoe tensed and took a step back. She glanced at Asmodeus and noticed him smirking cockily, waiting patiently for that fun moment to start.

“Kill Zoe Lestrade and you will win a level,” The announcer stated in a low voice.

Suddenly, every demon and soul left in the cage turned to the female. Zoe licked her lips, backing off until her back touched the bars and no place to go because the demons made a circle around her, staring at her with empty eyes. Some of them were licking their lips, scanning her body and thinking where to begin while others were teaming up only to get her cornered; well, she was already cornered. They only had to launch their attack and that was it.

Zoe closed her eyes and grasped the bars behind her. She had to fight or else she was going to die or vanish or whatever was happening when a demon would die. On the other hand, she was going to end up killing everyone and turning on the demon mood.

Which is exactly what happened once one demon got close enough to kick her. The others seemed to go on auto pilot as they all started to punch and hit her like she was a rag doll.

Behind her, Lucifer was watching carefully how her grasp on the bars was getting stronger with every hit. Her face was getting messed up and demons were using all the power they had left, forgetting about the rings.

Hans was somewhere in the back, watching her get beaten up. At some point, the demons grabbed her harshly and threw her on the ground making him flinch when she got kicked in the stomach strongly. Someone actually pulled her up by the hands while someone else grabbed her legs. They glared at each other and started to pull on her body. The crowd started to yell curses and some of them started to fight each other in order to get to her.

It was surreal.

However, Zoe was the one in pain. Her back hurt like never before and blood was boiling in her veins. She was getting mad and her mind was somewhere between collapsing and keeping a grip on reality. As things were getting worse, Lucifer noticed her veins actually swelling; he narrowed his eyes and waited for it. Her blood was black, like most demons’ but she was still human and her body was still working, even if it was possessed. The fact is, she wasn’t dead yet. The swelling started from her hands and went up to her head forcing the demons to drop her when they saw the veins on her face getting dark. Once it reached her eyes, it popped. Her brain shut down instantly and her eyes rolled in the back of her head; instead, the darkness filled her eyes, which actually meant that her orbs disappeared and the white substance that only alive people have in their eyes became bright yellow.

Something snapped in Zoe and everyone who had her sign felt it. Mehrdir was with the rest of the princes when he felt his whole arm burn while Iaosur and Eneizar dropped unconscious in the middle of the street, startling the rest. Ezekiel and Chen turned to Gakhas who had no idea what was going on.

Being Gakhas, he kicked Eneizar in the ribs to see if he was still alive.

“Hey, hey. Don’t just drop out of nowhere and place me in charge," He mumbled while glaring at the two demons but they didn’t move.

“What happened? Are they dead?”

Ezekiel was already freaking out so having two demons drop dead was not making him any calmer.

Gakhas grabbed a hand through his hair and stared ahead with no idea what to do, "No. I mean, they are as dead as when they first came here. But something strange happened; that’s for sure,”

“Um-should we continue looking for the rest of the bodies?” Chen asked out of nowhere.

Gakhas rolled his eyes and bent next to the demons.

“If my presumption is right, there should be a body in every place that she’s been to,”

Chen and Ezekiel glanced at each other and shuddered slightly.

“Doesn’t that mean she left us hints as to where she’s gone?” Chen started.

Gakhas blinked and stared at the two before he finally got an idea.

“Let’s go back to her place,” He said before he disappeared.

Ezekiel sighed and rubbed his forehead; the sloth demon left the demon bodies for them to carry.

Zoe’s yellow eyes were scarier than anything Hans had seen. Her eyebrows were furrowed and the glares she was throwing everywhere made the demons take a step back; that only happened for a minute, though, because they were all greedy for a status.

They launched at once and Hans couldn't help but watch in amazement; it was impressive how she started to fight like a savage. Kicking, punching and hitting weren't part of what she was doing, she was literally shredding them with her nails and teeth. The hunter flinched and shuddered when he saw her rip a demon's forehead with her fangs while pulling another by his hair. He closed an eye when she growled and spit; it looked very unfeminine and very different from who she was.

Demons were enough to keep her busy for the whole day but Lucifer had bigger plans. Seeing how control was slipping through her fingers, he decided to make things funnier.

"Stop!" He shouted.

The demons didn't hear him so he flicked his fingers. In a moment, everyone except Zoe and Hans was dead. Asmodeus glared at the prince of vanity and hurried over.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" He asked through gritted teeth, "Those demons were doing their job," He continued.

"Hans!" Lucifer ignored Asmodeus and addressed the hunter, who seemed completely awestruck, "Kill Zoe!" He ordered.

Hans needed a few minutes to register what happened. Lucifer just ordered him to commit suicide. The hunter glanced at Zoe, who wasn't listening to anything. She was still ravaging the dead corpse of a demon by taking his eyes out and scratching his chest. The sight was unpleasant and he could already picture her taking his heart out and playing football with it.

"Can I say no?" He mumbled to himself since he didn't have the courage to tell Lucifer that. The hunter knew the answer so he took a long breath before he grabbed his knife.

Zoe didn't expect someone to plunge a knife in her back or that person to cut deep in her flesh to her bottom. It felt like her head was burning and blood was dripping down her back and down on her legs. The color in her eyes brightened and half of her chin lowered in some twisted way.

Zoe turned slowly and glared at the hunter who was prepared to defend himself. He was lucky if he was going to die fast but that was vague with how spontaneous she was being.

Zoe wasn't aware of what she was doing so she wasn't going to feel any remorse; maybe later but definitely not now. Hans ducked a few times and kept a certain distance from her but didn't expect her to kick him from behind. Her style was to watch her victim squirm in her hold while she was sucking the life out of it so Hans didn't think of watching his back; that wasn't a total mistake, though. Zoe was a smart woman and learned psychology in university; no matter how much she hated it, the information was there in her mind. She might have not used it before but came in handy in manipulating Hans to play her game.

Zoe didn't move. She stopped midway and stared at him, her eyes softening a little and her features relaxing slowly; i looked like she was snapping out of it.

Hans raised an eyebrow but didn't walk closer. They were staring at each other in silence while the demons outside were waiting for something to happen. Lucifer, especially, seemed to focus a lot on her; he could see through her little act but so could Hans, making it a cheap play.

Zoe blinked once, twice before she dropped the head she was holding onto from her earlier feast. She looked down at her hands and realized just how much blood she had on them; it smelled bad and she could feel the taste in her mouth. It was like nothing she had done before; it was gruesome.

For a moment, she probably regained some kind of consciousness because her eyes came back to normal. Zoe's expression fell instantly and panic took over her entire being. She started to tremble and fell on her knees.

"What have I done?" She whispered to herself.

She blinked again before she raised her head and looked at Hans. He frowned when he saw tears forming in her eyes and falling down her cheeks.

He took one step before he stopped and looked at her closely, scanning her face. It seemed normal. He took two more steps and grasped the knife, just in case. For the rest of the way to her, nothing really happened and she didn't make any strange gesture.

When Hans arrived in front of her, he was confused if he should get down next to her or just watch. In the end, he decided to do something else. She was still crying and looking at her bloody hands when he patted her head. Slowly, his hand moved on the back of her head and grasped her hair. With new found courage, he pulled on her hair and plunged the knife right through her forehead. He gulped while watching the blood slowly drip from the wound.

It fell over her eyes and mixed with the tears on her cheeks. She was watching him with a blank face and empty eyes. Her idea was backfiring; or so it seemed. She got up, which made Hans take a step back. Her eyes were staring into his without having the need to blink. She started to walk closer to him therefore he started to back off. They continued like that until his back hit the bars. He gulped and made a small prayer in his mind before he closed his eyes. He waited for a few minutes but nothing happened. Hans opened his eyes and saw her a few meters from him, walking with her back turned to him. He saw another knife at a dead body near him. With slick moves, he grabbed the knife and got ready to stab her in her back again. That didn't happen. She took the knife off her forehead and threw it back at him. It hit Hans straight in the heart and he fell on his chest, dead.

Probably she started to wake up and that was why she didn't kill Hans like the rest. Her blood thirst was fading away and Zoe was getting a grip on what was going on.

Lucifer couldn't have that.

"I'll take her with me," He ordered before he left the place.

Asmodeus glared at his back and scoffed.

"Should we give her to him, master?" One lower demon asked Asmodeus.

The lust prince glared at the demon before he killed him with a short movement of his wrist.

"The guts some demons have these days," He mumbled before he left as well.

Zoe remained all alone in the cage and had enough time to think. She wasn't aware that her sign was working in some way; that was probably the only thing that was keeping her at the border between herself and the monster she could be.

A few hours later, she got moved into a cell again, this time not for a long period of time.

Zoe got hit and sent into prisons where she had to kill people in order to survive; she got toyed with thanks to Asmodeus' unlimited resources and when she thought that her torture ended, the door opened.

Lucifer entered in all his glory and took her with him. Zoe was half undressed and even the clothes she had were torn apart; her hair was intoxicated in many substances and she had blood all over her body. Truthfully, she looked like she died and revived only to die again. Lucifer wrapped a leash around her neck and connected it to the cuffs placing Zoe in the lowest position a commander has ever been.

On the other side, Ezekiel and Chen had a few problems. Two of them were called Iaosur and Eneizar. The demons didn’t wake up a few minutes later or even an hour later and it quickly became an issue.

Ezekiel called a cab and they went back to London. The ride was silent, mostly because no one would dare say something. They found Body number 6 and 5 so they were curious where the others were hidden.

The cab took a sudden turn right before her street. Chen was fast asleep and Ezekiel’s mind was swirling with different thoughts. At some point, while watching the sight on the window, he recognized a specific place: Dan’s pastry shop. His head quirked instantly and he shook Chen.

“Wha-?” The younger human was drooling on Ezekiel’s shoulder.

“You go back home. I’ll take a detour,” Ezekiel mumbled before he made a sign to the driver to stop.

“What?” Everything was moving too fast for sleepy Chen, “But I have no money on me!” His mouth shut when Ezekiel threw a few bills at his face. That was covered but when Chen turned back in his seat, he realized he got another problem, “How the heck am I going to drag both of them?” He wondered out loud.

Once outside, Ezekiel hurried to Dan’s store; it was Tuesday so they were definitely open. He entered the door in haste and grabbed attention from the customers. The mood inside was calming and it smelled sweet but Ezekiel was like a tornado.

“Oh, Ezekiel right?”

The cashier was an anonymous woman but thankfully, Robert was on his break. He waved with a loose smile at the young man and invited him inside.

“Did someone come over with a strange package?” Ezekiel asked the manager.

Robert raised an eyebrow and leaned against the counter, “I have no idea. I usually work in the kitchen.But you can ask Dan. He left for home in a hurry. He said he got a call from someone and had to get there as soon as possible,” Robert continued.

Ezekiel’s eyes widened. She wouldn’t go to such lengths, would she? Well, he was going to replace that out anyway.

“Can you give me his address?”

Robert nodded.

Once arrived at his destination, Chen had to choose which body to carry first. He started with Iaosur since he seemed skinnier. He got him in the alley before he grabbed Eneizar and thanked the cab driver for his patience.

“Young guys getting drunk,” Chen heard the driver mutter before he left; truthfully, he wished that was the case.

Once he dropped Eneizar near the wall, he realized that something smelled weird. He followed the ambiance and got in front of a dumpster, swallowing nervously before he opened it. Chen has seen a lot in his life, especially since his cousin worked for the police force, but what he found was above everything: inside was the body of a pretty man, not very muscular but not skinny either. He was stuffed in there with his hands on his chest; Chen shuddered as he tried to move one hand. Much like the other bodies, he got stabbed in his heart and his eyes were missing; his legs were cut since he was too tall for the dumpster and the killer had to make space.

On his forehead was one number: 3.

Something else caught his attention and that was the way the number was written horizontally.

Ezekiel got quickly at Dan’s apartment building. It was really close to the club they went to before, in London. He couldn’t help but awe at the luxury of everything! He felt really awkward when he entered the building and the door keeper inspected him from head to toe. Ezekiel took a long breath in and made his way to the elevator; from what Robert told him, Dan was living on the tenth floor.

The elevator music was familiar and Ezekiel couldn’t help but calm down and sing along. It was his own way of distressing and lately, that wasn’t working well. Ever since he entered Zoe’s life, his life became hectic and darkened with each passing year but he couldn’t deny how much he actually enjoyed their adventures and mishaps. It was a whole new world that he craved to know before he met her yet when he got dragged into it, demons and death became usual subjects discussed at tea. It was really different from what he read and saw on TV. It was real.

The elevator doors opened a few minutes later and he hurried to Dan’s apartment. The pastry chef opened the door before Ezekiel had the chance to knock. The older man’s eyes were wide and scared.

“Is there something wrong?” The puppy human asked the older version of puppy human.

Dan licked his lips and thought of a response, “No.”

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow and tried to take a peak over Dan’s shoulder.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Daniel asked while blocking Ezekiel’s view.

“I passed by your store and your friend told me you had an emergency,” He started, “I thought I might be your needed help,” The young man finished.

A moment of complete silence passed between the two men until Dan gave up.

“Alright, fine.” He opened the door wide for Ezekiel to enter, “It’s not something big, I guess. I just got a phone call that I received a package from Essex.”

Ezekiel’s eyes widened, “Did you open it?”

Dan rubbed his neck and nodded, “Only slightly. I think they’re books.”

Ezekiel stopped and turned to him in confusion.

“Books?” He asked bewildered. Dan nodded and showed him the package, “That’s all?” Ezekiel asked uncertain.

Dan nodded again, “Do you want something to drink or something? You look like you’d need a beer.”

He had no idea. Ezekiel was going to get wasted when everything was over.

“So, how is Zoe?”

Ezekiel had no choice but to stay for a while. He barged in with a bullocks excuse and couldn’t just leave without actually helping with something. In the end, he helped with thrash.

They were putting everything inside the plastic bags and sorting what was what; recycling was important.

“What do you mean?” Ezekiel asked, having no idea what he was referring to.

“You know, last time I saw her, she was in a bad shape because of a stalker,” It took a few seconds for Ezekiel to remember that lie. In Dan’s point of view, that thoughtful expression was fishy, “Or isn’t that what happened?”

“No! It is! It happened!” Ezekiel's eyes widened and quickly responded, “She decided to take a break for the time being. I think she went to Europe with her parents, yes,” He was lying and his eyebrow was twitching.

Dan wasn’t sure if he could trust Ezekiel or not.

“How did that stalker get to her? She always has someone around her, from what I noticed,”

That comment was on the thin line between being mean and nice.

“Yes but we have our own lives, as well. Lives that have nothing to do with dark things or Hell,” Ezekiel regretted that response as soon as the last word left his mouth.

“Right,” It was awkward and they both knew it, “Well, let’s go throw this out. Thanks for the help!” Dan continued.

Ezekiel smiled and tried his best to be relaxed; whenever he was tense, it would be pretty obvious for everyone except Chen.

Each had four plastic bags in each hand and it was indeed a lot of trash. The elevator ride seemed shorter than before and Ezekiel sung the tune in his head so it wouldn’t freak Dan out.

Once in front of the trash can outside, Daniel went to throw the bottles leaving Ezekiel with paper. The younger man sighed and pushed everything in its right container feeling quite disappointed. He didn’t replace anything and wasted a lot of money on transportation.